Death's Servant
by kimmykim45
Summary: Lucy Heartfilia is a new student at Fairy Tail Academy, but on her first day there, she finds out that it is foretold that she is expected to die very soon. Shortly after, she gets pursued by a mysterious man and her luck gets worse and worse since. Will Lucy really die? And if she does, what will happen afterwards? [Pairing will come later by vote]
1. Fairy Tail Academy

**HELLO EVERYBODY! :D This is the third series that I will be working on~ There will be multiple pairings btw! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

**11/14/2012 Edit - Made chapter shorter.**

**01/29/13 Edit - Changed summary to reveal less spoilers.**

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"It's all according to my plan." A deep voice rang out in an empty classroom. The dark figure stood by the window. The shadows from his hair covered his face as he looked outside the window. "I've waited too long for this moment."

His eyes scanned the courtyard of the school. Students were talking among each other, waiting for the school bell to ring. His eyes jumped from one group of students to another, until finally, he stopped at a new student and smirked. "Today is the day we meet," The figure started to laugh with pleasure. "Lucy Heartfilia."

**xXxXx**

Lucy was a new student at Fairy Academy, one of the top schools that taught all magic. She was a level 1 wizard who had just transferred to the prestigious academy for talented wizards. Lucy looked up at the huge, fancy doors of the academy, took a deep breath, and pushed them open. She gaped with amazement. She had thought that the outside of the school was amazing with its pristine green field, bright flowers, tall trees, stone path, large fountains, and clear pond, but the inside of the school was even . The floor was velvet carpet, the walls were white with painted black designs on them, and beautiful paintings and small lights decorated the walls. She walked towards a door with the sign "Office" on it and pushed it open.

She went to a pink-haired woman at the front desk and said, "Excuse me, miss, but could I get directions to my dorm room? It's number 839."

"That's on the second floor of the girl's dorms," She replied flatly. "You can find that building on the right side of the school building. Just walk to the back of the school and make a right."

"Thank you, miss!" Lucy smiled as she turned to walk out.

When Lucy got to her dorm room, she scanned her ID card with the scanner on the door. She heard a click and the door unlocked. Lucy pushed the door open slightly and began to walk in. "That was easy – AH!"

She was face to face with a metal stick. "Who are you?" The red-head holding the stick asked. Her eyes were fierce and she didn't look very nice.

"U-Um. I'm Lucy." Lucy took a step back. "I'm new here. This room is supposed to be where I stay."

The red-head's eyes widened and she quickly drew back the metal stick. "O-oh." She blushed. "Sorry about that then."

"It's okay." Lucy gave her a small smile.

"I'm Erza Scarlet." Erza held out her hand and smiled back. "I'll be your roommate."

Lucy shook her hand and she cringed. _Ouch, _Lucy thought._ This girl has a tight grip_.

Just then, the school bell rang.

"Ah, shoot!" Erza yelled, she was still in her PJs. "Lucy, just put your suitcase anywhere and quickly get to class. We only got five minutes before the classrooms' doors lock! I'm going to go change." Erza took her school uniform from her bed and dashed into the washroom.

Lucy's eyes widened. _Five minutes_. She set her suitcase down beside the bed next to Erza's and she pulled out a schedule from her vest pocket.

Erza threw the washroom door open, she had already changed into the school uniform (a white shirt with a black tie, a navy blue vest, black skirt and a pair of black running shoes) and had her backpack on. "Oh, you're still here, Lucy?"

"I don't know where my class is." Lucy mumbled.

"What is it?" Erza leaned over to look at Lucy's schedule. "Oh, that's the same schedule as mine! Just follow me for the entire day and you'll know where all your classes are!"

"Gee, thanks Erza!" Lucy smiled gratefully at her while grabbing her backpack.

"You're welcome, now, let's go!" Erza grabbed Lucy's wrist and pulled her out of their dorm room, the door locking automatically behind them. The girls ran down a flight of stairs and out of the girls' dorm building. They ran across the back of the school, which was as beautiful as the front, and into the school building. _  
_

The school was like a labyrinth, a well-decorated one, but still a labyrinth. When Erza and Lucy ran through the back doors, they went down at least ten different hallways before Erza finally stopped in front of a door with a window and Lucy sighed with relief. Erza opened the door and Lucy followed behind, but right before she walked all the way in, she turned to see a pink-haired figure running towards them. He was yelling something, but Lucy couldn't make out what. She gave the boy one last look and walked into class before she understood what he had said,

"Hold the door."

Lucy spun around to push the closing door fully open, but she was too late. _Click_. The door locked as the five minutes were up and the pink-haired boy ran right into the door, his face pressed against the window. Lucy gave him a guilty look before following Erza to the center of the gym, where the other students sat around the teacher.

Mr. Jet looked at the door and had a surprised look on his face. He walked over to the door and gave the pink-haired boy a look. "Natsu, you know that when the doors get locked, you are not allowed to attend the class for a day."

Natsu nodded disappointedly and began to walk away. "But," Mr. Jet continued. Natsu paused. "Since you're one of my best students and your attendance record has been perfect so far, I will let you off the hook just this once. Do not think I will ever do this again, got it?"

Lucy could tell the teacher was giving it his all to act serious. After all, the teacher looked about the same age as Lucy and he didn't look intimidating. Natsu nodded from the other side of the door and the teacher pulled out a key from his pocket to unlock the door.

As Natsu walked in to take his spot in the gym and started to glare at Lucy after he sat down next to a dark-haired boy. Lucy looked away from him uncomfortably and loosened her tie to let out some of her heat. Mr. Jet saw the tension between the two students and a mischievous smile crept on his face.

"Before we begin today's lesson," Mr. Jet said. "I would like our new student to stand up and introduce herself."

Lucy got up from her spot and tried to sound confident, but she was a timid person and Natsu's glare was not helping. "H-hello," She said rather quietly. "I'm Lu-"

"Excuse me!" Natsu interrupted with a smirk. "But could you speak louder? No one can hear you."

"A-alright." Lucy talked a little louder. "I'm Lucy Heart-"

"Still can't hear you." Natsu interrupted again with an evil grin. The other students looked at him, wondering what he was trying to do, since they could all hear her perfectly.

"I'm Lucy Heartfilia," Lucy shouted. "A celestial wizard!"

The students gasped, even Natsu was wide-eyed. Lucy looked around confusedly. Some students gave her a look of fear, some of pity, and some of pure shock.

"Lucy Heartfilia?" Mr. Jet walked up to her. He, too, had a look of pity on his face. "You may be in grave danger."

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**Dun dun dun. WELL, I hope everyone enjoyed the first chapter! There will be a lot of stuff in store for this series~ Sorry if it's a little slow right now, but I have to make sure a lot of details are said in this chapter so everything makes sense in further chapters! :) I will update as often as I can, since I now have three fanfics to update lol xP Anyways, remember to review because I would love to hear what you readers are thinking about the story so far :D Buhbye for now~ **


	2. Danger

**HELLO EVERYBODY! :D I managed to update this today~ I probably won't be updating anything for the next week though ( sorry, lots of projects :'c ). I might update things on the weekend. I don't know yet. :P OKAY, GO READ. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

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Lucy shifted awkwardly. "You're joking, right?"

Mr. Jet looked at his class before looking back at Lucy. "I'm afraid not."

Lucy held her breath before bursting out in laughter. "You guys are really good at this. C'mon, I know you're all just trying to prank the new girl."

"We're not pretending." Natsu said quietly, feeling a bit ashamed from being mean to Lucy just moments before.

"Sorry, Lucy." Erza said sadly, feeling pity for the celestial mage. Lucy's face paled as she took a step back from disbelief.

"Last month," Mr. Jet said. Everyone's eyes turned to him. "Cana, a student that uses card magic, was in the study hall late at night. She was practicing her fortune-telling with her cards by herself. But at midnight, the lights went out. At first, Cana thought it was a power outage since there was a thunderstorm, but she noticed the ceiling fans were still working. Strange, I know. What was even stranger was that everything was eerily silent. She couldn't hear the ceiling fan nor hear the thunder when she saw lightning strike. Suddenly, the windows flew open and a huge gust of wind blew all the chairs and tables over, including her cards. After a few seconds, the windows closed, the lights turned back on, and she could hear the thunder echoing in the study hall once again. When she got up to grab her cards off the floor, she noticed that they were in complex positions. It took Cana an hour to finally understand what the cards had foretold. The cards told of a celestial mage's arrival, but did not stay for long."

Lucy sucked in a deep breath. She was shivering from fright and from the cold, dark aura that had taken over the classroom. When she spoke, her voice quivered. "A-are you sure t-that isn't a f-fake?"

Mr. Jet shook his head. "At first, nobody believed Cana, but soon, we found out that what she said was true. Every staff member here listened to Cana's description of what had happened, then they looked through the security lacrima's footage… it was exactly how she described it."

Lucy looked down at her shoes. "What if she misread her cards?" She was hoping that what the teacher had told her wasn't true.

"That could be possible." Mr. Jet shrugged. "But wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry?"

Lucy tried to even out her breathing and slow down her heartbeat, but her voice still shook with fear. "I'm sorry, sir. I know it's only my first day, but may I be let back to my dorm?"

"Alright." Mr. Jet replied, voice full of pity. "The door is still unlocked."

Lucy walked over to the door and placed her hand on the knob. She looked back at her classmates, who were still staring at her. None of them looked away when she looked at them, except for Natsu. He turned around immediately and she thought she heard him sigh. Lucy gave a small sigh too, before looking at the teacher and walking out the door. "Thank you, sir."

Lucy closed the door gently behind her and started down the hall the way she came from. "I hope I can remember how to get out of this place." Lucy muttered to herself. She continued to walk down hallways as she thought over what Mr. Jet had told her.

"Maybe I'm not the celestial mage that the cards foretold of." Lucy said to herself quietly. The sound of her footsteps bounced off the walls. "Maybe there's another celestial mage that just came to this school." Lucy stopped and shook her head. "No, that's close to impossible. Celestial wizards are rare enough, so having two of them coming to the same school at the same time is just… i-impossible." Lucy choked up and felt her knees crumble underneath her. She placed her face in her hands and began to sob quietly at the truth.

"That's right, it _is _impossible." A male voice said.

Lucy lifted her face from her hands and looked around. "W-who's there?"

"You mean you don't recognize my voice?" The voice sounded rather disappointed.

"I don't know you!" Lucy got up from the ground.

"Are you sure about that, my dear?" A dark, hooded figure appeared a meter away from Lucy.

Lucy screamed from surprise and backed up. "I can't even see your face." Lucy huffed. She was trying to stay calm, but it was hard to, especially with a mysterious hooded man in front of her.

The man frowned. "You should know who I am." He stepped towards Lucy. "This is not the first time you've seen me like this." He took a bigger step forward, so that he was just a foot away from Lucy. He leaned in close to her. Lucy saw the faint outline of his nose and eyes. "I know all about you."

Lucy jumped backwards. She placed her right hand near her celestial keys, preparing to attack if necessary.

The man chuckled. "It's true." He gave a sly smile before continuing. "Your name is Lucy Heartfilia. You are the daughter of Jude and Layla Heartfilia. You're seventeen, but you're turning eighteen soon, which means you will be old enough to marry."

"Many people know that." Lucy replied simply, although she was a bit tense since he mentioned that she would be old enough to get married.

"Ah, but do they know that last night, you wished upon a star that you would find a better life at this school than you did at home? Do other people know that three years ago from today, you witnessed a man die right in front of you while he tried to protect you? Do others kn-"

"SHUT UP!" Lucy shouted as she pulled out a key. "Gate of the lion, I open thee! Leo!" Nothing happened. "H-huh?" Lucy tried again and again, but to no avail.

The man chuckled again. "Lucy, my dear, I have the power to nullify magic. You can quit trying now."

Lucy looked at the hooded man. "You're so slow at realizing these things during combat, Lucy. No wonder you decided to fight that wizard three years back. That was quite foolish of you, but not as foolish as the boy who tried to save you!"

Lucy gasped, tears rolling down her cheeks. She didn't want to be reminded what had happened to her friend, no, he wasn't _just_ a friend, he was the greatest friend she ever had. Her feet started to move by itself, they lead her backwards, turned her around and then she was running. She didn't care where she went as long as she got away from the man.

She turned a corner and she saw the hooded figure. "There's no use running."

Lucy turned to go back, only to see he appeared right in front of her. "Stop."

Lucy froze. _Cana was right, _she thought as the man raised a glowing hand. _I really didn't stay that long. __  
_

"LUCY!"

Lucy shifted her gaze from the man to see two boys running towards her from down the long hallway, but as she did, a huge beam of magic hit her. She screamed, her body felt like it was on fire, her heart was racing, she felt parts of her stinging, her energy was depleting and her throat ached by the time the attack was over.

_I don't feel too bad, _she thought. She tried to move her leg, but she couldn't and she realized the magic she was blast with had messed up her senses and her nerves. She looked down at herself as she lost her balance. _I'm bleeding, but I don't feel anything. Is this how death feels? _She shifted her gaze to the two boys who were still running towards her, they were saying something, but her ears weren't working. _At least whatever time I spent here was still kind of fun. _Her vision was fading to black as she fell over backwards, but to her sweet surprise, she never hit the ground.

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**I hope everyone liked reading this chapter lol. Sorry if it's kind of bad. I'm just really exhausted right now x( The other chapters will probably be a lot better though, so just bear with me~ Remember to review too, because I would love to know what you readers are thinking about the story so far! Until next time :)**


	3. Bunny Girl

**HELLO EVERYBODY! :D I especially took some time off of studying today to write this chapter, even though it's kind of short... but I hope you all like it anyways~ ^^ **

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Lucy's eyes flew open. "I'm alive!" She yelled as she sat up with excitement, but she fell back over when racks of pain took over her body. She clenched her jaw as she tried to refrain from screaming out, but ended up letting out a small whimper.

_I may be alive, but every part of me feels dead_. Lucy thought. _Where am I anyways?_ Lucy moved her head slightly to observe her whereabouts. She was surrounded by medicine cabinets, a couple of sinks, a long counter, and many beds. "It's an infirmary." Lucy realized aloud.

Just then, a dark-haired shirtless boy came into the room. He shouted something to somebody outside before he noticed Lucy was staring at him. "Oh, you're awake!" He said and then turning outside the door and yelling, "OI, EVERYBODY, SHE'S AWAKE!"

All of a sudden, people started to barge into the room.

"Lucy! You're finally awake! We were so worried about you!" A long white-haired girl said as she ran up to Lucy's bedside.

"How are you feeling?" The shirtless boy asked, walking beside the white-haired girl.

"LUCY!" A mid-length blue-haired girl pushed everyone aside as she ran up to the celestial mage and gave her a giant hug.

"Levy!" Lucy said before she screamed out in pain from the hug. Levy let go immediately and backed up.

"S-sorry, Lucy! I forgot about your wounds." Levy said quietly, giving Lucy an apologetic smile.

"It's okay, Levy." Lucy said weakly while she gave her childhood friend a small smile. Lucy turned to the shirtless boy. "And I'm alright, well, maybe I'm aching everywhere and I can't even handle a hug, but at least I'm alive."

"That's good. By the way, I'm Gray!" The shirtless boy smiled. He was about to pat Lucy on the shoulder, but he decided against it due to her injuries.

"Lucy!" Erza ran up to Lucy and bowed her head slightly. "I'm sorry for what happened! I should've known that you wouldn't be safe if you left to go to the dorms by yourself. As your roommate, I should've escorted you for your safety and for good manners since you _are _unfamiliar with the school." Erza took a box out of her bag and placed it beside Lucy.

"Erza…" Lucy said.

"Please accept it!" Erza said quickly. "It is the least I could give you for being such a terrible person."

"Erza, don't worry! It's not your fault I was attacked, but thank you for your concern." Lucy smiled at Erza.

_RING! _The school bell rang, signalling the beginning of class.

"Ah, shoot!" Gray yelled as he hurried towards the door. "Bye, Lucy. Get well soon!"

"Bye bye, Lucy! I'll meet you later so we can catch up on things." Levy gave Lucy an air hug and hurried out the door.

"Goodbye, Lucy! I will come visit as soon as I can." Erza waved at the celestial mage while running out of the room.

"I guess I have to go teach now." The white-haired girl said as she walked through the doors. "Farewell, Lucy!"

"Wait!" Lucy yelled weakly. "I don't know your name."

"It's Mirajane, but please feel free to call me Mira!" Mira replied from outside of the infirmary.

"Wait…" Lucy thought aloud. "Why am I alone again? AREN'T I SUPPOSED TO STAY AWAY FROM BEING ALONE?!"

Lucy's eyes shifted to the door as it was kicked open. A shady looking guy walked into the infirmary. He had long black hair and piercings on his face and ears. Lucy shrunk back into her blankets. _That man is definitely going to kill me._

"H-HELP!" Lucy screamed for dear life. The man's eyes widened. He jumped forward and clamped Lucy's mouth shut.

"W-WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" He yelled, shocked. "I'M HERE TO PROTECT YOU, BUNNY GIRL!"

Lucy stopped trying to scream for help so the man lifted his hand from her mouth. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and had a mixture of fear, disgust, and shock on her face. "W-what are you talking about?"

The man sighed. "Okay, here's the deal. My name is Gajeel and I have been assigned with guarding you as detention. I've been guarding you for the past week, so don't look at me like that, bunny girl."

"I was out for a week?!" Lucy shrieked. "And why are you calling me bunny girl? Do I look like a bunny to you?!"

"Yes, you were!" Gajeel stated. "And I call you bunny girl because the first time I walked in here to guard you, your hair was all messy and it looked like there were bunny ears on your head." Gajeel put two fingers on the top of his head to symbolize bunny ears.

Lucy sweatdropped. "O-okay then…"

Gajeel gave her a look.

"WELL, I want to sleep now, so don't look at me." Lucy commanded.

"Why can't I? I've been watching you since day one that you passed out." Gajeel replied nonchalantly.

"C-creepy…" Lucy muttered.

"HEY, I HEARD THAT!" Gajeel said angrily. "Anyways, just go to sleep already if you're so tired."

Lucy huffed and onto her side, facing away from the man. The last thing she heard before she drifted off to a deep sleep was:

"Sweet dreams, bunny girl."

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**Hehehe. You can all interpret Gajeel's last four words however you'd like. Who knows what his feelings towards Lucy are? -shrugs with a knowing grin- Lol, okay, I'm adding suspense. ANYWAYS, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Remember to review, because I love to know what you readers are thinking about the story so far! Buhbye for now~ :)**


	4. Weakling

**HELLO EVERYBODY! :D It took me forever to update this. I don't even know why, since I already had this chapter 95% done for days... ANYWAYS, I'm sorry for the wait and I hope you all enjoy! :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

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A few days later, Lucy was emitted out of the infirmary. She was as healthy as ever and she had gotten all her strength back with the help of healing spells from a girl younger than her named Wendy. Lucy thought she was very cute. She was like the little sister she never had, apart from her doll of course. When Wendy had asked her what had happened with the hooded figure, Lucy couldn't remember much. All she could remember was that the man somehow knew a lot about her and wanted to kill her for some reason unknown to her.

"Lucy."

Lucy turned around at the sound of her name. In front of her was an orange-haired adult. "Yes?" Lucy replied, cocking her head with confusion.

"I'm Gildarts Cleave. I'm your close-range combat teacher."

"Oh!" Lucy smiled with recognition and she held out her hand. "Nice to meet you sir."

Gildarts shook her hand and gave her a small smile. "I see you're all better now?"

"Yes, sir." Lucy replied.

"All body parts are functioning as they should?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, that's great news, because tomorrow our class is going to go on a trip to practice fighting." Gildarts said as he adjusted his cloak.

"Okay, sir. How long will we be staying there?" Lucy asked.

"Just for one night, so don't pack too much like Erza does." Gildarts smiled.

"Erza packs a lot?" Lucy gave a small laugh at that.

"Yes, you'll see by tomorrow just how much she brings on class trips." He started to walk away. "See you tomorrow and remember that the meeting spot is in front of the school at 9 am."

"Alright, bye!" Lucy smiled to herself. _This is so exciting! _She thought. _This'll be my first class trip! _Lucy started to walk towards the dorm buildings. She looked at the sun and saw that it was starting to set. "Oh no!" Lucy gasped. "I don't have much time to pack!"

Lucy started running. _It feels so good to run again_, _especially after lying in bed for so long_. Lucy closed her eyes and felt the breeze on her face and her hair flying through the air. _CRASH! _Lucy ran into somebody.

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, BUTTHEAD." A masculine voice said.

Lucy opened her eyes and rubbed her sore head. In front of her was a blond guy with a scar above his right eyebrow and behind the guy was a group of other boys, presumably his friends. They were all wearing a different uniform than Lucy, so they that meant that they were from a different academy.

"Sorry." Lucy mumbled as she got up.

"Hey, I know you!" The blonde boy pointed a finger at her. "You're the girl that got attacked by some mysterious dude!"

Lucy flinched. "Y-yeah…"

The boy started to laugh and his cronies followed suit. "What a weakling!"

Lucy froze. "W-what?"

"You heard me!" The blonde male snapped. "You're a W-E-A-K-L-I-N-G. I bet I could defeat the guy that came after you if he came after me!"

"But you didn't even see how powerful he was!" Lucy snapped back.

"So what? I can beat anybody. I'm _that _strong." The blonde male replied with a smirk.

"Sure, you are." Lucy muttered sarcastically.

"Shut up!" The blonde male kicked Lucy in the stomach, making her fall over. "See? I can knock you over with just effortless kick."

_How did he even hear me say that? _Lucy blinked tears away from her eyes as she looked up to the male and his friends. They were all snickering except for one black-haired boy, who looked quite bored.

"I don't know what you find so funny." Lucy said as her gaze traveled from the blonde male to the black-haired boy. "Even your friend doesn't find it amusing."

"Rogue doesn't find _anything_ amusing." The blonde male said as he pointed over at the black-haired boy. Rogue shot him a look before shaking his head and putting his expressionless façade back on.

"Why?" Lucy asked curiously.

"That's none of your business, weakling." The blonde-haired male said, crossing his arms.

"I'm not a weakling!" Lucy said as she got up from the ground.

"Well, prove it then." The blonde-haired male said as his body started to glow with bright magic.

"W-what?" Lucy's eyes widened._ Is it even allowed to fight on school grounds without permission from the teachers? _She thought.

"You heard me, weakling. Come at me and give me all you got." The blonde-haired male smirked devilishly as he cracked his knuckles.

"But-"

"Is something the matter or are you too chicken to start the fight? In that case," The blonde-haired male cocked his head before running towards Lucy with a fist of magic. "I'll attack first!"

The blonde-haired male's fist collided with Lucy's jaw, sending her backwards into a tree. She let out a small scream as her back hit the tree trunk. Being a holder-type magic user, Lucy couldn't stand physical attacks. She started to feel the drowsiness that she felt when she was injured in the infirmary. She held her pounding head and remembered that during the morning, Wendy had told her to stay away from using her magic until the next day. _What am I supposed to do now? _She looked down at her shaking hands and knew what she would have to do, although it was a cowardly action.

Lucy stood up from the tree just as the blonde-haired male came lunging his fist at her again. She barely managed to dodge his attack and he ended up smashing his fist at the tree, knocking it over.

"Shit." He said before focusing his attention back on Lucy, who was running away. "Ha, what a weakling."

"Sting," Rogue said from behind him. "We should go before anybody comes and sees that you've damaged Fairy Tail Academy's property.

"So what?" Sting scowled as he replied to Rogue, though he didn't lift his gaze from the fleeing girl. "I've got a fight to finish."

He ran after Lucy with full speed while focusing his magic into his fist again. He liked fighting with his fists. He got closer and closer to Lucy. _Man, this girl is so damn slow_, he thought. After a few seconds, he finally got close enough to her to land an attack. "WHITE DRAGON'S PUNCH!"

_A dragon slayer? _Lucy thought. She looked back to see a fist heading for her swollen jaw again. She closed her eyes and flinched, but the attack never came. She opened her eyes again. "W-what?"

Lucy looked in front of her with shock. There was a huge wall of ice blocking her from Sting. She could see Sting through the ice and he had a surprised look on his face too as he lifted his fist from the ice.

"Ice make lance!"

All of a sudden, a bunch of ice spears came flying towards Sting and hit him. "What the hell?" Sting shouted.

"Sting." Somebody jumped onto the ice wall. It was Gray.

"Gray." Sting smirked. "Nice to see you."

"It's been a while." Gray said, looking down at the blonde-haired dragon slayer. "But you're not welcome here."

"Tch. Is that any way to greet a friend, Gray?" Sting said, still smirking.

"No, but you aren't my friend." Gray said, his face cold.

Sting frowned. "Well, I was going to leave anyways. I only came here to pick an easy fight to practice my magic, you know?" He started to smirk again as he walked off of school property with his friends, Rogue walking slightly behind.

Gray furrowed his eyebrows. "Lucy isn't a punching bag."

"To me she is." Sting said back, waving goodbye.

Gray jumped off his ice wall as it broke. "Why that little piece of-"

"G-Gray, let's just go pack." Gray turned around and looked at Lucy, whose bangs were covering her face.

"You're going on the trip tomorrow, too?" Gray walked over to Lucy as he heard the pain in her voice and placed his hand on her shoulder. "We can train together if you want."

Lucy lifted her head to look at Gray with her teary eyes. "O-okay then."

Gray flashed a big smile and took her arm to walk her back to the girls' dorm building. Lucy gave him a small smile before she looked away. She would've felt happy that she had just befriended Gray and that he saved her from Sting, but she had the strangest, most gut-wrenching feeling that something terrible was about to happen.

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**CHAPTER FOUR COMPLETE~ WHOA, DID YOU GUYS HEAR THAT? SOMETHING ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN in the next chapter lol. By the way, thanks for the reviews and faves/follows everybody! It really means a lot to me~ I hope everybody enjoyed this chapter. I'll be updating again soon (: So yup, remember to review, because I'd love to know what all of you are thinking about the story so far! Until next time~ **


	5. The Forest

**HEY EVERYBODY! :D Omg, I am sooooo sorry that I haven't updated anything in AGES. I don't know when I'll be updating my other series… It'll probably be during Christmas break. Sorry, everyone, I'm just extremely busy because of my heavy subjects at school. I managed to find some time to update this because I had already begun this chapter last month so yeah… Gomen. See you all again in three weeks. :c **

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"We're here!" Lucy jumped off the magic powered bus and landed on dry grass. It had taken hours, but her class had finally arrived at the destination of their trip: a creepy decaying forest. They were supposed to train there for the next two days and observe monster behaviours. Lucy heard a moan and turned around to face a motion sick Natsu. He stumbled down the stairs of the bus and grabbed Lucy's shoulder to regain his balance, but threw up beside her during the process.

"EW, NATSU!" Lucy looked away, repulsed.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Okay, class, please direct your attention away from Natsu's mess and listen to me." Gildarts shouted. "The day is already half over so we are going to begin to observe monster behaviour right away so we can train tomorrow. That being said, everybody must stay within the boundaries of the weak monsters in the forest. The boundary will be marked with golden ribbons so don't pass them or else you'll be sent back to school immediately and will be given a suspension." Lucy heard some girls gasp in surprise and some boys groan with disappointment. "Everybody grab a clipboard with your name on it. On it will be a chart with blanks that you must fill under each monster's name with an attached pen. NOW OFF WITH ALL OF YOU!"

Everyone scrambled to get their designated clipboards when Gildarts had raised his voice. Lucy grabbed her clipboard and ran off into the forest. Within an hour, Lucy and her observant eyes managed to fill out the entire chart, except for one monster.

"Backseye," Lucy read the name aloud. As if on cue, the said chameleon-like creature appeared five metres away from her. "Aha!"

Unfortunately, Lucy's sound of triumph scared the chameleon and it ran off. By then, the sun was about to set and a slight fog covered the forest. Lucy ran after the creature and unknowingly passed a fog-obscured golden ribbon as she ventured deeper into the menacing forest.

**xXxXx**

Meanwhile…

"Oi, Natsu!" Gray spotted his salmon-haired friend and ran over to him. "Can I copy off your chart?" Gray rubbed his head sheepishly. "I'm not too good with information gathering."

"No way! I was about to ask you the same thing!" Natsu pointed accusingly at his friend. "I thought you were _great _at this kind of stuff!"

Gray hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. "No, I'm not." He sighed. "If only Levy were here to help."

Natsu scoffed. "We don't need some expert to help us! We can do this together, newbie-style!"

"Yeah!" Gray shouted as he ripped his shirt off, getting pumped up. "We can _do this_!"

After another hour of gathering information, Gray and Natsu returned to the opening in the forest to regroup with the other students.

"I can't believe we didn't find anything." Natsu whined as he plopped down on the dry grass.

"Ah well, we can copy off of someone." Gray looked around. It looked like everyone was there, but he couldn't help but feel as if someone was missing. He turned to Natsu. "Hey, do you feel-"

"Yeah," Natsu interrupted as he sat up straighter. "Something's wrong, but everyone's here. Well, everyone I know, anyway." Natsu got up to sniff around for any missing scents. He knew he was missing something, if he wasn't, he wouldn't be having such a terrible gut feeling.

Gray furrowed his eyebrows in deep thought. "Everyone he knows, eh?" He mumbled to himself.

Natsu picked up a strawberry vanilla scent right as Gray shouted, "Hold on!"

Both boys' eyes widened as they remembered who they've forgotten. "It's Lucy!"

Suddenly, everyone cringed and clamped their hands over their ears when a high bloodcurdling scream sounded throughout the forest.

* * *

**Chapter 5 is complete! :D I hope all you readers enjoyed it~ I know it's a short chapter, but I didn't know what to write to make it longer :$ Just a reminder, I will not be updating anything until Christmas break, so please be patient, because I am sorry. :c Also, just to clarify something, this story doesn't have any pairings… yet. AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Remember to review, because I'd love to know what my dear readers are thinking about the story so far. Until next time~ x)**


	6. More Trouble

A girl walked through a dim forest, her footsteps sounding as she stepped on dry, dead grass. She lowered herself under a protruding branch and edged her way through between two shrubs. From there, she could see what she was looking for the entire time.

_There you are, you little rascal! _Lucy thought. She was careful not to speak those words and scaring off the creature again. She hastily took out her clipboard and pen and jotted down the required information about the said animal. She was done within a minute and she laughed triumphantly. "Finally done!"

The creature immediately ran away at the sound of her voice, but Lucy didn't care, she was done with it anyways. She gave a final sigh of contentment before taking in her surroundings. She was surrounded by plants that were a different colour compared to when she entered the forest, and there was a completely different aura than just a while ago. Somehow, everything seemed off and she began to feel anxious as she saw the sun begin to set in the distance. "Hello? Is anybody here?" She shouted, hoping to get a reply. There was a long silence as she waited for a response. She bit her lip and pulled out her keys. "Maybe Pyxis can help." She took a silver key and summoned the bird compass. "Pyxis, could you point the way back to the camp?"

Pyxis nodded and chirped its name as the arrow on its compass head began to spin and landed on Southeast.

"Thank you!" Lucy smiled as the bird disappeared. Quickly, she made her way through the forest, careful not to trip on loose roots and lose her sense of direction. However, not long after, the sun went under the horizon and everything was dark.

"Great. Just great." Lucy said sarcastically as she pulled out her keys once again. She looked at each one before deciding on choosing Virgo. Perhaps she could bring her a flashlight. "Gate of the Maiden– " A rustling noise came from Lucy's left side. Lucy peered to the side as the rustling came closer.

Suddenly, she heard someone call out her name, "LUCY!" At first, she didn't recognize it, but the voice repeated itself, "LUCY!" It was Natsu's voice. Lucy wasn't sure how she felt about Natsu being the one to rescue her from the dark, but it didn't matter. She was going to get _saved_, damn it! She should be glad – extremely happy, even.

"Natsu! Natsu, can you hear me? I'm over here!" Lucy yelled into the darkness of the forest.

"LUCY!" She heard him yell back.

Swiftly, she ran towards his voice, happy to have finally found someone. She ran past trees, bushes and shrubs, past flowers, roots and hanging vines until she burst through a clutter of leaves and into a small opening. "Natsu!"

The smile she was wearing on her face instantly fell. To her horror, it wasn't Natsu who was calling her name; it was some sort of monster. But it wasn't just any kind of monster, it was one that wasn't on the list that she was supposed to find, deeming it a formidable foe. She stopped short a breath as she realized that she must have past the yellow flag boundaries. That means she was facing a monster that was too dangerous to observe… and too dangerous for her to fight.

But where was Natsu?

As an answer to her unspoken question, the creature, who looked like a vulcan, slammed its fists into the ground and roared, "LUCY!"

The color drained from Lucy's face as she registered the abilities of her opponent. The vulcan-like creature must be able to mimic others in order to lure in prey, meaning that number one, Natsu was indeed looking for Lucy but was nowhere in sight, and two, Lucy might just get pounded into a patty and get eaten. She was absolutely terrified.

While she was frozen in horror and her brain wasn't functioning properly, the creature began to charge forward, which definitely did not help the fear factor. But her growing fear triggered something within her that made her move again – perhaps it was the instinct to survive, but she wasn't sure. Either way, before the creature could get too close to her, she pulled out a zodiac key. "Gate of the Bull, I open thee, Taurus!"

The muscular bull appeared in front of Lucy in a puff of smoke and without even taking in the situation his summoner was in, he began to ogle her. "Wow, Lucy, looks like you got curvier! What a nice body!"

"Taurus, turn around!" She shrieked. Before Taurus could even make a full turn to realize there was an opponent, he was knocked out cold by a humongous fist and disappeared back into the Spirit World. Lucy made a quick mental note to never summon the bull whenever she was in a life-threatening situation – that is, if she even survived through that battle. But even though she was quite angry at Taurus for ogling her and not checking out the situation she was in first, she still hoped that the bull was alright and not heavily injured.

Before she could dwell too much on thoughts of her bull friend however, she was quickly brought back from her thinking when another massive fist came hurling her way. Reflexively, she ducked and the fist missed her head by a few inches. She cursed under her breath at the close call and kept her eyes and thoughts trained onto her foe, who had backed up to his original position. Without even having to look down at her keys, her hands deftly took hold of the two she was feeling for and summoned both in seconds.

The creature began charging forward with another attack as Virgo and Loke appeared. Both sent a quick greeting towards Lucy before turning towards their opponent. Gears turned in Lucy's head as she ran through a battle plan in her mind. "Virgo, use your chains to constrict the creature and don't allow it to move at all, especially his limbs."

"Understood, princess." Virgo replied. Raising her arms so that they were parallel to the ground, the chains that dangled from her wrists shot out at the bulky foe, wrapping them around it several times to ensure that it wouldn't even be able to move a single finger.

"Okay. Now, Loke, knock it out while it's still constricted." Lucy commanded, watching as the creature struggled to break free from Virgo's chains.

Loke gave a blunt nod and advanced, his right hand fisted and glowing with an ethereal light. He let out a battle cry as he reached his opponent and swung back his fist and brought it back forwards. "Regulus punch!"

Virgo's chains began unwrapping themselves from the creature as Loke's fist whizzed through the air, aiming for their opponent's face. The impact caused the creature to get thrown backwards just as the chains left its body. It let out a frightening cry as it ripped past trees, bushes and other growth until it the momentum from the punch wore off and caused the creature to tumble on the ground and lay still.

Lucy sucked in a large amount of air as she saw the limp body. Had she just killed something? _Technically, Loke killed the creature_, her mind reasoned. But as the blonde stared at the corpse, the uncomfortable feeling of guilt crawled into her heart and mind. _It was my order, _she thought to herself. _Even though it was an accident… I'm still the one who summoned Loke, so I'm responsible for his actions._

Virgo and Loke looked over at their summoner, who had curled up into a ball on the forest floor with her face in her hands. "Princess?" Virgo said, cautiously nearing the girl.

"Are you alright, Lucy?" Loke asked as he ran over and crouching, wrapping an arm around the distressed blonde. He couldn't help but feel guilty for accidentally using too much force in his punch and did more damage to his opponent than he intended to. "Lucy, it's not your fault so don't act so guiltily."

Lucy moved her hands away from her face as she looked up at her teammates. Her eyes looked glossy with tears, but there wasn't a single drop of moisture on her face or hands. "Don't worry about me." She gave them a small smile. "I'm just… shocked."

Loke smiled back at her before he stood and helped her up. "Okay, Lucy. Just remember to not let it get to you okay? And don't feel so bad!" The lion spirit put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It was going to be either you or it and fate decided to choose you to live, so don't be such a downer and be happy."

At that, Lucy managed a fuller smile as she looked between Loke and Virgo for their help and concern. "Thank you."

"Princess, would you like us to escort you to the camp?" Virgo asked as her lips curled up at the corners.

"Ah, that's alright! You two have done enough for me already!" Lucy let out a small laugh. "You can both return to the Spirit World, I'll find my way back by myself. But could you point me the direction I'm supposed to head?"

Loke raised a finger and pointed to the opposite direction of the creature's body. "If you keep heading straight that way, you'll reach the camp in ten minutes or so."

"Thanks again, Loke, Virgo." Lucy gave them both a quick hug before the two spirits disappeared and the blonde began heading off towards the camp once again. She latched her keys onto her belt as she made her way through the undergrowth and shrubs of the dark forest.

**HELLO EVERYBODY! WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE JUST HOW SORRY I AM. I HAVEN'T UPDATED A SINGLE THING FOR MONTHS D: I HOPE THE FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS AND FAVORITERS WILL FORGIVE ME. I EVEN MADE THIS CHAPTER LONGER THAN USUAL! I know that Lucy seems really helpless right now and keeps needing to get saved BUT this is all part of the plan and it's pretty important for later on so don't get mad please. :( AGAIN, I AM EXTREMELY SORRY AND I DON'T KNOW WHEN I WILL UPDATE AGAIN (I am experiencing major writer's block). So please bear with me, readers, until next time~ **


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